Move your chart of accounts to QuickBooks Online

SOLVED•by QuickBooks•QuickBooks Online•295•Updated 16 hours ago

Learn how to import your chart of accounts to QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks uses your chart of accounts to organize all your accounting. When you set up your company, QuickBooks customizes your chart of accounts for you. But if you need to, you can move over custom accounts or your existing accounts from another QuickBooks Online or Desktop company.

Use a spreadsheet to import your accounts and skip manual entry. We'll show you how.

Tip: The best time to import accounts is when you’re still setting up your company in QuickBooks. But if you don’t have a lot of accounts to add, you can create new accounts instead.

Step 1: Get your spreadsheet ready

You can import your chart of accounts using a spreadsheet in Excel or CSV file format. Here's how to get it ready before you upload it to QuickBooks.

Step 3: Match your fields to QuickBooks fields

Once you upload your spreadsheet, make sure your accounts get imported correctly.

Select each small arrow ▼ icon in the Your Field column. Then, match the columns in your spreadsheet to these QuickBooks fields:

Detail Type

Account Name

Account number

Type

Tip: Select No Match if you have any field (except Account Name) that doesn’t have a matching column in your spreadsheet. For example, if you don’t have a column for account numbers.

Select Next.

Step 4: Import your chart of accounts

You’re almost finished. Just look over everything one last time before you save your accounts.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to add types and detail types.

Tip: Focus on getting the account types right first. Then select the detail types that fit the transactions you want to track.

If you see any field highlighted in red, it means you need to fix that bit of info. Move your pointer over a highlighted field to see what you need to fix.

Uncheck any account you don’t want to save.

Once everything looks good, select Import.

QuickBooks lets you know how many of your accounts it successfully imported. If there are accounts QuickBooks can’t import, you’ll see a message that explains what you can do.

To see your imported accounts, go to Settings ⚙ and then Chart of Accounts.

Step 5: Enter opening balances for accounts

Once all your accounts are in QuickBooks, enter your opening balances for bank, credit card, and other accounts.

Tip: An opening balance is the starting point for the account you create in QuickBooks. It summarizes all past transactions in your real-life account up to the opening balance date. Think of it as a snapshot of the account's history.

Go to Settings ⚙ and then Chart of Accounts.

Find your bank or credit card account.

Select the small arrow ▼ in the Action column, then Edit.

For the as of date, tell QuickBooks when you want your account to start. This sets the starting point.

Next steps: Download your transactions to QuickBooks

Connect your bank or credit card to bring in your transactions. If you connect, QuickBooks downloads and categorizes your transactions for you. All you have to do is review and approve the transactions.